🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨

This summer I took my daughter to the Field Museum in Chicago and after all the cool dinosaur stuff stumbled onto Lucy the hominid skeleton, and was kind of surprised by how moved I was to get to see her. It was like, that’s me! That’s us! 🥲

I love the medieval literature trope of the prince/knight who’s too busy hunting to find a girlfriend, then finds an animal while hunting who turns into a beautiful lady, but in a tragic complicated way

In breaking Judaism news, I’m the first contemporary Jewish person to feel complicated about my traditions and communities, yet affectionately bound to them Let’s see what I make of this novel subject position

My burger dinner didn’t quite fill me up enough for fasting tomorrow so I slammed a protein shake just under the wire before sundown. Have a meaningful fast if participating and may your name be written in the book of life! Unless you’re fascist then fuck off! Shanah Tovah!

I have Giorgio Moroder’s galloping four-on-the-floor groove template stuck in my head This is only a problem inasmuch as I am in a quiet place and cannot play the music out loud

Whenever I think about the premise of Grease—taking place after the core romantic narrative arc, told only in fragments mediated by a torn social milieu—I’m always struck by how weirdly modern it is

Begin sourdough in the morning, amateur baker take warning Begin sourdough at night, amateur baker’s delight

Eating at a place that serves fries cooked in beef tallow but shaking my head while I eat them so people know I still vaccinate my child

I hope everyone has a good Erev Oktoberfest, Oktoberfest sameach to all who celebrate !

Digital habits are interesting. I saw a literal physical book in my office, thought, “I’d love to read that,” went to my computer, web searched “[Book] pdf,” remembered to search my university’s library database, then remembered at last: The physical book was twenty feet from me, free to read.

What a life. RIP and everyone read her autobiography Assata asap

I’m excited to give my brain enough rest* for a week to revise this big story I finished drafting this week *catching up on grading and revising other poetry

Regarding the Chotiner interview, I can’t stop thinking about “I’ll make sure to tell people Kissinger was nice to you about your Star Wars book”

Shana Tovah and a sweet new year to everyone ❤️

Finished first draft of SF verse novelette about a young person coming of age in the wake of a failed revolution, slowly understanding why it was worth it for the earlier generation to try to imagine a better world. The frame story is told by a robot and there are three invented poetry forms in it.

The rapture being scheduled on Tuesday is a perfect example of how a Christian centric society excludes religious minorities. I’ll be in Rosh Hashanah services and can’t make it that day!

It’s my birthday today and I have two asks for you. The first one is to donate to families or aid organizations in Gaza fighting to survive Israeli genocide. The second less serious one is I’d love if you read some of my poetry! See links below:

It’s very cool to be reaching the speedy climax of this book well after midnight, especially when it’s close to the scariest book I’ve ever read

Alaa and the twins are really suffering right now. They have been sick and everyday has been harder than the last. Can you share or give what you can? chuffed.org/project/help...

I like this post

Like this post and I’ll DM you the names for two sci fi units of length measurement I just invented, and their corresponding lengths in kilometers

With my birthday coming up (38 on Sunday!) now is a great time for cool literary magazines to send poetry acceptances and wealthy strangers to give me $10,000

I’m thinking about how at this first fridays in Omaha, a emo rapper performed to an audience who had clearly never heard the genre before and didn’t know what to make of it. The MC had to remind everyone to clap for him

I love writing poetry

Ringo never really had a bad song on a Beatles record, but “Don’t Pass Me By” definitely provokes much reflection on what a ‘good song’ is

Robert Redford’s death has me wanting to write about all the funky layers that make “The Way We Were” such an amazing movie

One funny thing people don’t really do anymore is post a string of non sequiturs and end it with #winning

It’s here! My copy of @thedeadlands.com has arrived, including my poem, “Query Telling on Other Elder.” You should get a copy of your very own! I’m getting to writing the companion essay to this poem for my substack, but you can look forward to that soon as well!

Sahar, who has once again had her account deleted is now being pressured extremely aggressively to pay rent for the lot where her family has set up their tent. Can you imagine being threatened with homelessness again in the midst of the increasing genocide? She needs $600 please do what you can

🦊 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! State of Matter | Issue 20 is going mythic. We’re commissioning 3 faux-tales, one each in: 🔮 Science Fiction ⚔️ Fantasy 👻 Horror 💰 CAD 150 (~₹9,500) per selected story 🗓️ Submissions: Sept 15 – Dec 15, 2025 🧵👇

But if we made an NFT of this state park, everyone could enjoy it, not just visitors. In a way, it’s elitist and gatekeeping to *not* make an NFT of this state park.

Regarding mass/public shootings, for me this is the year we understood better how perpetrators and admirers form online communities that see such violence as an art form with symbolic/expressive meanings, building on each other’s ‘work.’ Grim

I was musing on what makes my narrative style different from both conventional and literary narratives (for better and for worse, no value judgments here), and I think the core is a certain commitment to what I’d call social realism.

Me watching Gone With the Wind and discovering that the movie is extremely racist

You should read my long essay about the influence of growth mindset thinking on popular culture. You will not regret reading my takes on swag rap and the Zootopia soundtrack!

On my substack, I wrote a very long essay on the phenomenon I call “growth mindset music.” It’s a little riffy but connects some threads I’ve been musing on: self conscious positivity, precarious education, and internet slop. open.substack.com/pub/mrpoemgu...

Very earnest post but I hope to always treat others in ways my late mother would be proud of me for

I like when 50s-70s sci fi characters have names like “Draven Brisko”

Driftless area

I just read the use of the phrase “second generation author” to describe the child of a successful author themselves becoming a successful author and I think the more accurate phrase is “nepo baby” lol

Reading more of the stories published in Weird Tales in the 20s and 30s rewriting my understanding of the history of science fiction to an extent that is exciting and delightful. So much of what we attribute to the “new wave” is found there, but also things I haven’t seen before.

Once they figure out how to soup up / customize / luxuryify breakfast cereal toppings (think to the extent of ramen) the cozy influencers will be unstoppable

Update on ambitious “proof of concept” verse narrative I’m drafting: I’m almost done with the “scratch draft,” the bundle of fragments depicting nearly all the story beats, to be stitched together into a first draft. It feels good. And the story is really taking me somewhere.

Pleased to welcome you back to issue 2 of Specpoverse! I love that editor @miguelmitchell.bsky.social and I get this opportunity to boost new speculative poetry! Read below specpoverse.org/vol-1%2C-iss...

Devastating